When Heat Da Spot Café opened in Washington, D.C.'s Park View neighborhood in 2015, its menu featured just a handful of standard items like sandwiches and bagels. However, as customer demand grew, twin sisters Semret and Timnit Goitom, along with their older brother Ben Solomon, began incorporating traditional Ethiopian dishes, gradually transforming the café into a recognized destination for breakfast with Ethiopian roots.

Over the following decade, the siblings expanded their culinary footprint beyond Heat Da Spot. In 2022, they launched Ice ‘n’ Slice, an Ethiopian-themed pizzeria located in nearby Petworth. Alongside other area establishments such as Doro Soul Food—which offers Ethiopian-spiced fried chicken and doro wat mac and cheese—these ventures have contributed to shaping a distinctive Ethiopian American dining scene within the D.C. area, which hosts one of the largest Ethiopian communities outside of Africa.

At Heat Da Spot, the atmosphere is eclectic, with walls adorned by photos of various dishes and playful signs urging patience during meal preparation. The café’s signature Ethiopian-style breakfast highlights lightly spiced scrambled eggs cooked with berbere, a fundamental Ethiopian spice blend. Served with injera—a tangy, fermented flatbread—and sambusa, a lentil-stuffed pastry, the dish sets itself apart with its bold seasoning and a dash of honey that adds a subtle sweet contrast. The sisters, originally from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, describe themselves as cooks rather than professional chefs and have focused their menu on dishes they excel at preparing while leaving more labor-intensive offerings like doro wat to other local establishments. Nevertheless, their breakfast plates have earned praise for their flavor and texture, particularly the eggs’ firm yet moist consistency and distinctive seasoning.

Ice ‘n’ Slice brings a unique spin to Ethiopian cuisine by translating classic dishes into pizza form. Ben Solomon manages day-to-day operations and prepares the restaurant’s slow-cooked doro wat, a traditional chicken stew after which a signature pizza is named. The stew’s rich onion and berbere-infused sauce serves as both base and topping for the pizza, complemented with pieces of stewed chicken, slices of hard-boiled egg, and a generous amount of cheese that moderates the spice level. This fusion dish is presented in a traditional mesob basket, complete with a conical lid removed tableside, blending Ethiopian cultural elements with modern pizza service.

The pizzeria’s offerings extend beyond doro wat, including the “Addis Ababa” pizza, which features tomato sauce topped with cabbage, stewed lentils, yellow peas, beef, and carrots, creating a vegetarian-friendly option that captures the essence of Ethiopian flavors on a single crust. While some dishes, like beef tibs, may not consistently meet the expectations set by other Ethiopian restaurants in the area, the establishment’s focus remains on pioneering this novel culinary concept.

Together, Heat Da Spot and Ice ‘n’ Slice illustrate the Goitom siblings’ role in evolving Ethiopian cuisine in Washington by blending tradition with innovation and highlighting the region’s vibrant Ethiopian community.